Formula 1 returned to the historic Autodromo Nazionale Monza this weekend, with teams eager to unlock speed at the legendary “Temple of Speed.”
Friday’s opening session offered the first glimpse of how the Italian Grand Prix weekend could shape up, and it was Ferrari who impressed early, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton showing strong pace under clear skies.
Kiwi driver Liam Lawson was among the early movers, running on hard tyres during FP1 and briefly finding himself inside the top ten before finishing 13th overall.
His soft-tyre runs were limited and not fully representative, but he demonstrated solid consistency, staying close to teammate Isack Hadjar despite Hadjar’s restricted track time as a rookie.
By the end of the session, Hamilton finished the session at the top of the timesheets in FP1 with a 1:20.117, ahead of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli completed the top five.
The session also featured a few incidents, including Hadjar damaging his floor at Ascari and a brief Virtual Safety Car triggered when George Russell stopped on track.
FP2:
Free Practice 2 kicked off just a few hours later, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Alpine’s Franco Colapinto finally getting their first laps after reserve drivers took FP1 stints in their cars.
Piastri set the early benchmark with a 1:21.896, only for Sainz, Russell, and Gabriel Bortoleto to go faster shortly after. Alex Albon topped the early times with a 1:21.510, although only eight drivers had completed a flying lap at that stage.
Lawson and Hadjar headed out on medium tyres, aiming to build useful data for the weekend. Piastri briefly reclaimed the top spot with a 1:21.212, just 0.003s ahead of Fernando Alonso. Lando Norris soon surged to first place with a 1:21.012, giving McLaren a 1-2 early in the session alongside Alonso, all on medium tyres.
The session was interrupted Kimi Antonelli beached his Mercedes in the gravel on hard tyres, bringing out a red flag. After the track reopened, Lawson’s first flying lap moved him from 16th to 9th, only half a second off the McLaren pace.
By the time other drivers, including Oliver Bearman, Nico Hülkenberg, and Albon, posted faster times, Lawson had slipped to 11th.
As teams shifted focus to short runs on soft tyres, the timesheets began to shuffle. Sainz briefly went fastest with a 1:20.583, followed by Norris posting a session-best 1:19.878.
Lawson improved to 10th on soft tyres but remained just under a second off the pace of the top McLaren. Hadjar finished FP2 in 11th, 0.505s behind Norris, while Lawson ended 17th, nearly a second off the top pace.
After the session, Lawson was visibly frustrated about the difficulties Racing Bulls faced.
“It was tough on our side,” he said.
“It’s very small margins here, so we’re trying to extract everything out of the car. We missed a little bit [on Friday]. Better we do it today, learn from it and try to put ourselves in the best position for Saturday. But there’s work to do.”
He highlighted balance issues and the ongoing challenge of optimising the car for qualifying. Asked if a Q3 fight was realistic, Lawson admitted that the team would need to find improvements overnight.
Lawson’s Monza Record:
Lawson arrives at Monza with extensive experience on the historic circuit.
He first raced here in 2019 in Euroformula Open, qualifying second in both races and taking a victory in the second, finishing runner-up in the championship. That year, he also competed in Formula 3, finishing on the podium in race two.
In 2020, he returned with Hitech GP in Formula 3, securing solid top-ten finishes and ending fifth in the championship.
Lawson has also raced in DTM with AF Corse, claiming one victory and multiple podiums, and returned to Formula 2 in 2021 and 2022 with consistent results.
Most recently, in 2023, he finished 11th in Monza during a five-race Formula 1 stint with the then AlphaTauri team.
With his proven pace at Monza, Lawson will be hoping Racing Bulls can unlock more performance overnight.
Qualifying is set for 2:00am NZT Sunday morning and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports or F1TV.
Header Image: Sam Bloxham/LAT Images via Red Bull Content Pool
